Evaluation of the aniline chemical oxidation process using multiple simultaneous electrochemical responses

In this paper we show the simultaneous evaluation of the electrochemical impedance, the open circuit potential and the mass variation of the polyaniline deposited on a metal substrate during chemical oxidation of aniline. We detected that the final properties of the polymer could be practically defined after the inflection point of the potential profile. Considering a series connection of R and C, impedance Z was decomposed into the resistive and capacitive components. The resistivity and permittivity show a slight change after the inflection point in the potential profile. Impedance data and mass changes during synthesis also contributed to a better definition of the induction period. We described the system as whole, which relates to an electronic transport and to an electronic charge storage process. Although very simple, this model helps us to interpret and correlate different techniques to explain the results. In addition, we demonstrated that the in situ evaluation of the parameters described above offers new insights on the chemical synthesis mechanism of polyaniline.